Our final week
Monday July 28
Monday we went to the Tate Modern Art gallery. It was my favorite museum overall. There was a lot of surrealist art and a few really cool film pieces. I could have spent all day there. That night a group of us went on a Jack the Ripper tour. I didn't really know much about the murders so it was great to hear about it. I was also thankful that it wasn't a tour which contained creepers jumping out at us from dark alleyways. However, there was no lack of gruesome details of how the 5 ladies were murdered back in 1888. I did more paper writing throughout the day. I had 9 papers due that last week of the trip so there was little free time for other things.
Tuesday July 29
Our last museum visit was to the Victoria and Albert today. They had an exhibit of theatrical designs (for sets and costumes mostly) that were British entries into an international theatrical design competition. They had the most amazing and innovative sets. I was really blown away by some of them. Especially one costume on display from a production of Beauty and the Beast. The Beast's costume looked like something out of Aliens. It was so creepy and cool at the same time. That night we went to the National one last time to see ...some trace of her. It is a bit hard to explain...there were live actors on stage but they were acting and filming a movie that was shown on a screen above the stage. They set up all their scenes and did their own special effects, narration, etc. There was even a live ensemble doing the soundtrack. The plot line wasn't anything special but it was very interesting to watch how different the stage version and the film version turned out.
Wednesday July 30
The group only had one workshop this afternoon with the Shared Experience theatre company. There were some really cool exercises that had to do with abstract response to the actions of our partners. I've had so many acting classes with the same set of games and exercises but I've never done anything like the things we did last Wednesday. The rest of the day was spent doing homework.
Thursday July 31
What do you know? More homework today. But my friend Jessica and I did take a break around noon to go to the Hard Rock and tour the vault. There was so much there. I got to see a guitar that Mick Jones used in the studio and in concert. I swooned, touched the guitar illegally, and left on cloud nine. That night we went to see the musical Billy Elliot, which was fantastic. It's coming to Broadway in October, I think. Anyone who has the opportunity should see it, it's cute.
Friday August 1
Our history class gave final presentations on Friday morning. Mine was on the rebuilding of the Globe theatre. All our papers were due by noon. I went down to the wire on one of them. All together I had over 20 pages of writing due this week. After our final meeting at noon some of us bought theatre tickets for that night. Myself, Hazen, Vinnie, and Hanna decided to see I, Lear. Before the show I did some packing and went down to the river to give my goodbye to the city. I walked across the bridges and had dinner on a boat-turned-restaurant on the Thames. We went to the show at 7 and it was really the perfect way to wrap up our theatre experience in London. The show mocked every famous British playwright in history. So funny. That night we started our final party at Pickwick and progressed to Leicester Square to a place called Zoo Bar. A few songs in they played Hey Jude, which set me off bawling for whatever reason. I knew I had to cry about leaving at some point, I just didn't expect it to be so public. At least I had all my friends with me to help me through it. The night continued and I did much more drinking than I'd expected but I didn't take much notice. I was having too much fun dancing with everyone. The club closed at 4 and we headed home. I was pretty toasted, but not to the point where I needed help standing up...like my roommate Alara. I helped her home and when we got back she started picking a fight with Julianne. I crashed on my bed, still in my black dress. I didn't wake up until an hour before I had to finish packing and leave for Heathrow.
Saturday August 2
Sebastian, Julianne and I left Pickwick at 10:30 for the airport. On the way out I told Patrick, the man who runs Pickwick, that I would be back someday soon. Julianne took a ridiculously long time to get through security. Her luggage was overweight, she didn't have her liquids in a plastic bag, and she had scissors in her carry on so security had to dig through everything of hers. But we still got there on time. Heathrow is really amazing. It was more like a shopping mall that just so happened to have airplanes. My flight took off at 2:40. I watched Leatherheads and Kung Fu Panda. I was glad to see my parents and to sleep in my own bed. But I can't wait to get back to London.
